📖 Q: how poised would you be on a scale of 1-5 (low to very) if you ran into an actor celeb crush? Honestly I have imagined how embarrassing I would be & so I will likely duck & run if I ever see one of mine 😬. I’d stick around for an author celeb crush though!!

Immediately on opening up K. M. Jackson’s How to Marry Keanu Reeves in 90 Days I was sucked into the voice of it—the conversational, quirky narration that totally matches the plot itself.

& what’s this book about? It’s a fun romp starring artist Bethany Lu Carlisle—who wants to track down the recently engaged Keanu Reeves & convince him to marry *her*—& Lu’s best friend True Erickson, who’s stood by her through everything & also happens to be secretly but also not so secretly in love with her.

Adventuring to an amusement park, a film party, & across the US so they can track down Keanu, the leads get to know each other even better & realize they can still be surprised, even after all these years.

Bethany “Lu” is a gem: “Over 40, single AF, & okay with it. It didn’t mesh for some.” True is the steadfast kind of hero I love; he works so hard to show her how they can be happy together if she’s brave enough to act on the feelings she has.

Friends to lovers, celebrity cameos, leads who are 40+, & convos about pain & racial profiling & Keanu, this one is entertaining & sweet.

📖 Q: what are your fave chips? 😆

I’m usually not a huge friends to lovers fan but this book makes me a real believer. Jenny Holiday’s Duke, Actually is peppered with truly heart-warming scenes—like how the leads, friends-only at the time, share a bag of chips & talk on the beach—& each one ratcheted up my impatience for this couple to fall over that friend line.

We meet Dani Martinez, recently divorced & burned by love, & Max von Hansburg, sobriquet the “Depraved Duke,” in the first book in this series: A Princess for Christmas.

Dani is really resistant to even hanging out with Max during his visit to NY at the beginning of Duke, Actually, but he agrees to attend a faculty party as her “date” so she won’t have to face her ex alone.

Along the way Dani starts to see new depths to the rakish royal, & they both realize that they can talk to each other in ways that are unexpected. That they’re actually best friends.

As the book progresses, each confession builds on the simple loveliness of their friendship. They grow to care for one another, to depend on each other, to love each other, & to be *in love* with each other, & each step feels natural & wonderful.

Jenny Holiday is a fantastic author & this book takes it to a new level. It’s a slow burn set in NY & Eldovia with two leads who caught my heart & whose HEA exceeded my expectations. I really hope you’ll pick this one up!

📖 Q: Halloween this or that! Chocolate candy or fruity candy; Doing the “Thriller” dance or watching someone else do it; funny costume or scary?

This book doesn’t mess around.

If you like your PNR dark & grim with characters who wrestle with their own morality, white supremacy, & the weight of their pasts, with loads of steam & scenes that will fog up your ereader & a core of redemption glittering throughout, you might like Suleikha Snyder’s upcoming release Pretty Little Lion, second in her Third Shift series.

This series is bold & ferocious, two of the biggest reasons why I like it so much.

Pretty Little Lion features Meghna Saxena-Saunders, a beautiful supernatural working undercover who often has sex with her deplorable targets and/or kills them in order to ultimately save lives & do some good in the world & Elijah Richter, a former military lion shifter who’s now head of Third Shift, a black ops group, & is attempting to infiltrate the same group Meghna is.

The book opens with them propositioning each other, each thinking of the other as a “Target.”

Skewering white privilege, racism, & misogyny & offering deadly leads who are POC & all too aware of what they provide “a country that didn’t even want her [them]” Pretty Little Lion isn’t afraid to interrogate, question, critique, or annihilate.

I love it. This is all enhanced by the lushness & heat of the many physical scenes & the final moment when *both* leads are willing to confess their love—which is very hard-won.

But there’s a storyline here that doesn’t add much to the actual story for me & that takes up a lot of space & in general things feel like they could have been pared down some (thanks to @literaryillusions for helping me by sharing her own thoughts regarding this aspect of the plot!).

Overall, this is a compelling series that kinda grabs a reader by the throat.

📖 Q: what are you reading this morning? I just finished my last ARC due 10/26 & I think I’m going to take an ARC break before starting my ones out November.

Second chance romance often isn’t my fave but I don’t turn down an opportunity for a new Adriana Herrera book.

Just for the Holidays is a second chance, snowed in, fake dating romance between an executive in charge of casting & the *super* hot Hollywood actor who unexpectedly dumped her six years ago, after they’d been together & in love for two.

Perla Sambrano has never forgotten Gael Montez. But she wants him to sign on to a series made by her family’s studio about a Puerto Rican freedom fighter & she thinks she can get him to do it. Even though feelings 🙃.

Herrera really makes the most of the sexual tension & release in this one, offering a sexy story between two people who just can’t help but want each other. Both leads are charismatic & hot 🥵.

Also very much part of the story is Gael’s loving family, & Perla’s own (which, apart from her exec sister and brother in law is not so lovely), & how, as Perla says, she’s finding people who genuinely care about her to spend her time with…a rarity in her life. That’s built on in the Epilogue, where Herrera shares the real effort she & Gael are putting into their relationship.

But I just didn’t totally understand why their break-up happened—that part feels muddled to me—& 100% of why why Gael was resistant to picking things up in the present-day. Also I wanted Perla to really make him work to get her back—even for a weekend—& she didn’t do that enough for me personally, though Gael really comes through in the reconciliation & Epilogue.

Just for the Holidays definitely gives me hot, snowed in, fog up the windows vibes but the second chance arc falls flat for me.

Within minutes of starting Joanna Shupe’s The Lady Gets Lucky I knew this was going to be a good one. For me, this book offers the lush, in your face sensuality & rich, I-know-how-to-wring-out-your-emotions goodness that Shupe brings in her book Devil of Downtown, which is one of my fave historicals.

LADY’s premise is lessons in flirtation between a quiet heiress & a charmer rogue—in this case said heiress Alice wants a husband so she can get freedom from her overbearing mother & pursue her passion for cooking & charmer Kit wants the recipes she can give him for his new supper club.

From the first Kit feels “protective” toward Alice & thinks her face & awkwardness & forthrightness are “adorable”; he watches her when she’s quiet amidst the group, wondering what he can do to make her more comfortable & less embarrassed by her overbearing mother. He listens to her & is honest & open with her—a rarity—& he wants to kiss her, don’t get him wrong, but he will never marry or fall in love (YEAH, OKAY, KIT. We believe you 😉 ).

The magnetic ways Shupe uses these tropes, the romance catnip, the crumbs Shupe lays telling us that these Words-Only lessons will turn to Kissing will turn to Love are all fantastic. The sexual tension is captivating. Watching Kit & Alice discover who they can be now that they’ve learned about themselves through the comfort, acceptance, & care they find in each other is lovely.

This is a 5 ⭐️ read for me & trust me, you want your hands on this one!

📖 Q: are you more of a Grumpy or a Sunshine?

Where do I start with this review? Seriously, help a girl out.

I think I’ll just say that Tessa Bailey’s Window Shopping brought me so much joy. From the heroine’s initial (seeming) disdain & confusion regarding the Ted Lasso-inspired hero to her eventual delighting in every ounce of his dorkiness, to the way they meet each other emotionally time & time again, to the steam that was whistling out of my book as the sexual tension builds & eventually gets PIPING hot.

Tessa Bailey writes charismatic books that again & again prove that she knows what the readers want: a tantalizing blend of heart & heat, where characters LUXURIATE in feeling & so do I as I read them.

If the thought of

😍 Sunshine & the grumpy
😍 Second chance—as in Stella, the lead who is a recent correctional facility release, has longed to be a window dresser her whole life & finally gets her chance
😍 Aiden, the lead, wearing bow ties & carrying around a bubble butt & bearing a plethora of down-home stories about his wild Aunt Edna & also being a sexual beast
😍 & Holiday good times

sound good to you, check out the CW & pick this one up. I swooned hard.

📖 Q: I’m personally uncertain about the existence of ghosts. If you had the chance to see a ghost (& potentially know they were real) would you take it? (Or have you seen a ghost before)?

Ghosts + Paris + compelling & tragic backstories + a rekindled romance. Diana Biller’s The Brightest Star in Paris is a rich tapestry of a gothic romance broken at times with humor & always very aware of its humanity.

Prima ballerina Amélie St. James has started seeing ghosts…just in time for the arrival of Dr. Benedict Moore, the man she loved & lost 12 years ago.

In those 12 years so much has happened. Now, Amélie feels responsibility for things Benedict isn’t aware of—a state of affairs not alleviated by the ghosts she’s started seeing.

Is there a way for the two of them to be together?

The author tells a sweeping, lush story that shows again what a talented storyteller she is. But I did wish their was more focus on Amélie and Benedict’s relationship, more development of what they have in the present, outside of their current ghostbusting task.

The Brightest Star is a romance that’s heavy on setting, atmosphere, & history—broadly speaking & its personal effects—with a chills-inducing & also arresting ghost story—& a romance that’s steamy & touching (but maybe not immersive). All in all, a great pairing for fall.

Q: What’s everyone heading into the weekend reading?

My angst-meter has been re-calibrated thanks to some recent fantasy reads & good thing because I think it helped my heart handle KD Casey’s Unwritten Rules a little easier 🤣.

This second chance sports romance interspersed with flashbacks is beautifully written, with heartbreak & desire, regret & connection captured on the page & a love story that shines.

Zach Glasser isn’t expecting his former secret lover Eugenio Morales, also a catcher in the Majors, to be at the All-Star Classic game. It’s been a few years since they were lovers, since Zach decided he wasn’t willing to give Eugenio what he wanted & needed & Eugenio walked away.

Zach is mired in regrets but still deeply distressed at the thought of coming out to anyone. But he wants Eugenio back.

Told in a structure somewhat similar to People We Meet on Vacation, Unwritten Rules amps up the angst-meter with extended flashbacks that reveal Zach & Eugenio meeting, practicing together, forming a friendship, eventually becoming lovers, separating, & now meeting again.

It’s painful seeing Zach struggle & both of them hurt, just as it’s such a freaking relief & a real source of happiness to see Zach, willing to work on himself & Eugenio, to open himself up to Zach again.

KD Casey writes this couple so thoughtfully: I feel like I could describe both MCs & their relationship so well & that’s because she gives such a good sense of who they are, the challenges they’ve already overcome—Zach is Jewish & has a hearing aid & Eugenio is Venezuelan American—& these things aren’t always appreciated by their fellow baseball players—& the things that draw them toward one another.

With Unwritten Rules KD Casey offers a stirring, resonant romance that I won’t soon forget…& also taught me some things about baseball 🤣.

📖 Q: who’s one of your favorite Scottish heroes or heroines?

I’m still thinking about Susanna Kearsley’s The Vanished Days. Seemingly heavily researched but effortlessly romantic this historical fiction with romantic elements book kept my attention.

Set up as an old man’s recollection of earlier events—augmented with notes from an investigation he & a colleague conducted—the book focuses on the life of Lily Aitcheson & a mystery surrounding whether she was in fact married to a sailor who was part of the African Company & whether she’s entitled to any inheritance as a result of his passing.

The recollections explore as early as 1707, when religious & political loyalties divide & troubles with monarchs influence what religion someone might be forced to follow. When the possibility of Jacobite uprisings could either inspire hope or dread.

Those conflicts & loyalties could sometimes be hard for me to remember and/or grasp, but maybe that’s part of the point.

With a great twist, a fantastic setting, & a remarkable mystery told by a keen storyteller, The Vanished Days is lovely and effective historical fiction + only-kissing-on-the-page romance.